Which has been your most relaxing moment as a gamer?

Today I am going to write in a more calm and non-critic matter. We all know that certain combinations of sensory input have the power of becoming some sort of memory beacons. Those memory beacons are moments in your life that flash through your mind just by thinking about those events and objects even if your thoughts are ambiguous, sort of like catching a glimpse of a poster or something and remembering a very specific feeling because of it. The same thing happens with video games, so today I am going to share a very rare time in my life as a gamer and that was the small time span when I felt so at peace while playing that it was almost weird and surreal.

It was Christmas 2008 and as the college semester ended I was getting ready for my holiday vacations. My Xbox 360 had died (RROD)  and I was broke as hell, so I went back to the Wii and my PC for some Christmas time gaming. I started my vacations by ordering The Longest Journey (saga which I am a hardcore fan of since then) and Sanitarium through a very cool trading site that used to exist at the time and went by the name of Goozex (no longer working). I did this by using the first 100 points they awarded me just for joining the community and another points I earned for referring a friend. Both games were awesome and I just felt so nice and focused while playing them that I basically breezed through all the puzzles and problem solving with a lot of ease. Also both storylines were really surreal, which helped to the overall "mind on the clouds" mood. It is also worth noting that the temperature at the time was near perfect and there were a lot of rainy days (which I love) making it all a lot more enjoyable.

After that, Nights: Journey of Dreams was going to be released and in a lucky turn of events, my mother bought it for me as a Christmas present (which was very surprising considering that the last game she had bought for me at the time was Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (NES) so yeah, it had been a while). Been a long time Sega fan, I found the game to be quite enjoyable even if official game reviews were not that good. I was also one of the very few that actually used the online feature this game had, in which you basically constructed your own dream world and could have friends visiting your world while you were visiting theirs. The whole dream topic made the experience to be very mellow and relaxing and I thought that the game's ending was even better than in the original Sega Saturn games.

So there was another game like Hotel Dusk: Room 215... I have to play this!

After that, as New Year's Eve was getting near, I got a couple games for the Nintendo DS at a bargain bin at Kmart (they don't do those anymore) which were Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Contact. In Hotel Dusk I was instantly absorbed by the film noir style it had and also by its intriguing story (in which I got a couple bad endings before finishing it the way I was supposed to). As for Contact I got it thinking it would be some sort of DS Earthbound and while it wasn't exactly what I expected, it still made up for a pretty nice experience.

Finally as 2007 went away and my vacations were ending, I got some more cheap games while I had the chance. This time it was Trace Memory (DS) and Alida for PC (Alida was through Goozex). Trace memory was a good game that made me feel as if I was watching one of those "wth is happening" anime series and Alida took me back to the days of games like Myst. I barely finished both games before college started again and I went back to the daily grind.

So yeah, my little story of an awesome holiday season... So what?

Why do I tell you all of this? Well, because this was my case, but I'm sure each one of you had at least one occasion where you went full mellow gaming just to kickback and relax. For me, that holiday season was very special even if my Xbox 360 broke down (missing out on some of the new games) and even if most of the games I played were one year old at best. This proves one simple thing, which is that following the latest trends will not always lead you to the full enjoyment of your games. At times you just have to look back and give a chance to those games you may had missed when they first released. Give it as try, as it is a very fun and rewarding thing to do.

Remember Remember 10 Games in September

September is already here and there are a ton of things that gamers around the world should be happy about. Today I'm just going to give you people a small list of 10 games that will release this month. It is a long way from this day to the release of games that are scheduled for a 2015 release, but we are ready to begin the gaming spree that this 4th quarter 2014 will be. We have been waiting a long time for a streak of expected games to come our way so this is some of what we will have this month:

September 2: The Sims 4 (PC)
For all of those Sims fans, comes the official 4th game in the franchise and it comes with a lot of improvements. Some of these are a completely new set of Sims to play with, each with its own personality and traits, the "create a sim" and "build mode" features were completely redesigned, neighborhoods now have a bigger variety of people and last but not least the addition of "The Gallery" which is a place where players will be able to get new sims and homes with the chance of sharing their own. All of these improvements and new things imply that this new Sims game will be a great one, especially if you are long time fan.

September 9: Destiny (multiplatform)
Releasing on the same month and day that the Dreamcast did 15 years ago, comes one of the most expected games this year. Destiny is a sci-fi styled first person shooter with online rpg elements. Those who play it, will embark on a epic journey as one of the warriors called "Guardians" in an effort to drive out the dark forces that linger on our solar system and threaten our existence. In this game you will have the chance to explore different planets while doing story missions, quests or just roaming around the place looking for treasure, all of this making the PVE (player vs environment) part of the game. As for the PVP (player vs player) players will have the "Crucible" where they can go toe to toe with other players in different maps based on each planet. The interesting thing about PVP in Destiny is that you can also win some loot or unlock various items such as weapons and armor by doing certain things while playing against others. So in both PVE and PVP, Destiny promises to be a really fun game.

September 16: Fairy Fencer F (PS3)
The PS3 has been receiving a steady flow of jrpg games and this pattern goes on in September with Fairy Fencer F. Nis America and Compile Heart come with the western version of this jrpg, featuring Yoshitaka Amano as the concept artist and Nobuo Uematsu as the music composer. The story on this game is about a set of legendary weapons called "furies" that were created by the good and evil gods of the past for their soldiers to use in their conflict. Now on moderns times, warriors that can use that sort of weapons are called "fencers" and as warriors go around the world looking for those legendary weapons, the conflict between the gods starts again. From what we can see about this game, it looks like your classic jrpg experience, but considering that part of the Hyperdimension Neptunia team was involved in the development of the game, expect to see a lot of wacky skills and over the top special moves.


September 23:

Natural Doctrine (PS4)
This one is the first jrpg experience the PS4 owners will get and up until now it looks pretty good. Natural Doctine is a very challenging tactic rpg game that tries out tactic mechanics mixed with an exploration approach. The game hasn't sold that well in Japan, but this may had been because of the fierce competition that the game has on the PS3 and PSVITA, coupled with the poor sales that the PS4 has been having in the land of the rising son. In the west it may be another story, because the game is basically running alone in the PS4 library as no other big Japanese rpg games have been released for the platform on this part of the globe. Some people have called this game the Dark Souls of tactic rpgs, so if you like to have some challenge, try this one up.

Gauntlet (PC)
This game can be basically called a remake of the original 1985 Gauntlet. It will feature updated graphics and the same exciting horde style action game play that many gamers have grown to love on this game. The game will feature all the classic character classes and the big randomly generated dungeons. As we have been able to see from the pictures and video that have been shown, it is notable that the new Gauntlet will sort of feel like a simpler version of Diablo 3, with the only purpose been to survive the onslaught and dangers to be found in the dungeons. If you are fan of the original game, or you like to spend some time hacking and slashing your way through, this is your game.

Ar Nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star (PS3)
The PS3 jrpg love continues with this game coming to the PS3 this month. Ar Nosurge is a prequel to the Ar tonelico series that put you in control of one of two pairs of characters at a time, each with their own point of view in the story. The pairs are characters called Cas and Delta and later on Earthes and Ion. The story of this game goes around some evil outer space lifeform called the "Sharl" who were able to defeat space travelling humans with the use of "song magic". Thousands of years later, some ancient humans appear and they seem to have learned to use song magic so life for humanity changes and a new struggle begins. This game features some classic rpg elements like field exploration and the recruitment of new characters by following their own stories, so it is a quite interesting option for any jrpg fan that wants something closer to the classics of the 90's.  

September 24: Dark Souls II: Crown of the Ivory King (DLC)
This Dark Souls II DLC promises to be even more challenging that the game itself, although not much has been shown about it. Most of the information that has been shown by the media include a winter-like place with a bonfire in it and the words Episode 3: Crown of the Ivory King. Players have been speculating this to be based on the Shrine of Winter, but nothing official has been said about it so if you are a Dark Souls II player, you definitely have to check this one out.

September 26: Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
This had been a game that has been advertised a lot lately, so now we will be finally able to see if it will deliver. This cross between Dinasty Warriors and Legend of Zelda has been enjoying quite a lot of hype since they started announcing the characters that will be playable in the game. We have gone from Link and Queen Zelda to Impa and even Garuna and Ganondoft himself so the roster is quite big. Based on what has been shown, the adventure mode looks really fun, although it would had been perfect if it would had featured online cooperative play. Dinasty Warriors fans are preparing to play the heck out of this one, while the Legend of Zelda fans are holding their breaths and hoping for the game to live up to their expectations. Will the game pass the ultimate fan test? We will see when it releases.


September 30:

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Multiplatform)
This new entry on the Hobbit/LOTR series of games is an action rpg game developed by Monolith studios. On this one you will play as a ranger that has some strange wraith powers, living through the events that happen between The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings storylines. The players will find themselves in an open world where they will have the freedom of advancing at their own pace through the many missions and quests in the game. Shadow of Mordor also features character customization and the "Nemesis System" which is basically a system that "remembers" how you have interacted with different types of characters in the game so they can react to you accordingly when you find them around the world. The game really looks like it is a nice addition not only to fans, but to action rpg players in general.

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360 / Xbox One)
Continuing the Forza series is Horizon 2. This one takes place during the fictional Horizon festival (held all across Europe) where players will explore the region and enter various racing events in order to advance through the ranks, get better rides and above all, earn some respect. This time around, the game will feature day and night mechanics which will make the experience to be a lot more real that on previous titles and it will include over 200 cars to use or race against. There will also be a group of challenges called the "bucket list" and several types of racer to racer online interactions that will make it feel as if you were really part of the racing scene. Up until now if you are racing game fan, this is your best bet yet.

Wrapping it up

There is more from what that came from, but I limited my list to 10 noteworthy games that are coming on this month, so keep with the Gamertologist Zone as new game details are released and get to know a little more about what our wallets should fear.

Source:
Game Informer: 2014 Game Release Schedule

5 games with strange storylines.

Every now and then certain games that enjoyed a very healthy sense of creative freedom are released. By creative freedom it means that at least the writer and designer could implement their original ideas without any corporate constraints. The cool thing is that sometimes these games come with strange storylines that go a little far from the good guy wins scenario and delve more into a "What the hell?" kind of thing. Today we are going to see 5 of them in narrative style, putting you in the shoes of the main character(s) and doing a little storytelling just to give you a sense of what the story of the game is all about.

Note: Some of the stories can contain details that could act as spoilers.

This guy is the very beginning of a twisted tale.

1) Baroque (Rpg - Wii, PS2)

You awake in front of an enormous tower with a strange archangel looking at you. You look to the sky and it is all red and your surroundings look like some apocalyptic wasteland. You talk to the archangel and he tells you that the world (as we know it) has been completely destroyed and that it is your fault. Now to atone for your sins you must take a futuristic looking riffle, enter the tower and slay "the goddess". You go into the tower and find yourself fighting grotesque monsters and after going up a couple floors you find the goddess. Instead of the horrible monster you expected, you find out that she also looks holy. You then aim your riffle at her anyway as your lack of trust gets the better of you and shoot. After making sure the problem has been dealt with, you head to the exit only to find that you are at a balcony and there's another version of you all the way down. You mutter something to yourself and jump to your death.

You awake again and find yourself in the same situation you started, with the archangel giving you the riffle and telling you what to do. You also find that there is a small town full of strange beings not far from there where you can explore a little. Now after your visit to the strange town you must do the same thing over and over in the hopes of finding any clues that can help you solve the mystery, which means dying a lot while you figure out what things you really have to do in order to get to the truth.

They seem innocent enough, but believe me these kids are cruel.

2) Rule of Rose (Survival Horror - PS2)

You are a 19 year old girl who is led by a mysterious "lost" small boy to an abandoned mansion. There you find a corpse in the mansion's courtyard and get attacked by a group of crazy children. You try to fend them off, but they pour water on you and keep hitting you until you pass out. When you wake up you realize that you are in a big airship that is been controlled by some kind of cruel hidden society entirely composed of children. You are mistreated and basically seen as a servant as you get by the air ship looking for clues. You don't only see harm done to yourself, but also between the children themselves as they show the cruel side of childhood in their little "games". After sometime trying to figure things out something happens and the airship crashes.

Now you find yourself on an old orphanage and the children are as crazy as ever resorting to killing each other while putting you through some sort of tests to see if you are worthy of joining the club (even though you are older than all of them). Now you must search for a way to end this once and for all, before it becomes even worse of a bloodbath, but not before asking yourself if you are as evil as they are.

You play the entire length of this game feeling sorry for the poor girl.

3) Pandora's Tower (Rpg -Wii)

You are a knight of some distant kingdom, attending a ceremony on a nation that is an enemy to yours. Suddenly the main singer of the ceremony turns into a monster and chaos ensues. You help her escape with the help of an old woman who has a giant pot on her back that stores a mysterious monster that can only express himself with unintelligible moans and noises. The singer girl is half a monster now and you want to help her. The old woman tells you to slay some monsters in some nearby towers and bring their meat. You do just that only to discover that in order for the girl to be cured of the curse that have befallen her, she must eat the meat (raw). It all looks simple until you discover that she is a vegetarian (because of her religion) and isn't supposed to eat meat, let alone raw monster meat that looks as if it was rotten, so there's a lot of suffering going on from the get go.

Now, you must keep going to the towers, looking for the biggest of monsters (called masters) in order to get their special meat and basically keep feeding it to the girl until the curse is lifted. Regardless of how many times the girl eats the monster's meat it always disgusts her and there is always the doubt about if that "cure" will work because they are just taking the old woman's word for granted. It is also worth noting that she must keep eating lesser monster meat throughout the day to keep the curse from coming back in full effect. All this while the other nation's army is looking for you both as you became fugitives from the moment that the incident happened. One curious thing to notice is that those "masters" are organic weapons, made of living things (possibly human too) so what the girl is eating is sort of a mix of different kinds of flesh all lumped into one.

Let's just hope that we never have to do something like the PRISM project in this game's story.

4) A Mind Forever Voyaging (Text based - PC)

On this one you are a computer program who basically represents the personification of the first sentient computer which is called PRISM, developed by the (USNA) or United States of North America. On this story, the country is in very bad shape, basically becoming sort of a cyberpunk dystopia on its beginnings. Now the PRISM computer (and you as "Perry" which is the fake human used to run everything) must be part of some country "revitalization" government research project where the computer runs simulations of many alternate versions of a fictional town called Rockvil in South Dakota and see which of all the possible scenarios would really help in the country's path to recovery. On each of them you must play your role and make decisions that will alter the course of each scenario in very profound ways going from scientific, social and political aspects. At various points where you begin to see results, you will have to go back to the real world and report to the lead scientist in the project which happens to be your creator.

Your mission is to find a suitable plan before the government decides to pull the plug on the project which means that PRISM will be turned off and you will die. You are also at risk because of various people who want to destroy the computer so the government doesn't find any solution and the country can remain on the same path.The clock is ticking for North America and you will have to live many different simulated lives before you can have any chance of success.

The game is based on the sci-fi horror short story written by Harlan Ellison.

5) I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream (Adventure - PC)

On this one, an evil AI takes control and destroys the entire human civilization except for 5 persons (each with their own story and a defect, mistake or tragedy of the past that haunts them) and after keeping them alive and torturing them for over 100 years, it makes them play a twisted game that involves solving different scenarios and escaping the places it puts them into. As a last attempt to escape they must solve each "game" and prove to the AI that humans are better than machines because humans are able to learn from their mistakes and redeem themselves. The thing is that each place and scenario has been carefully made to cater into each of the person's flaws so it becomes as hard to solve as possible.

Now here is where you enter the scene as you control any of the chosen people. You can be Gorrister who is a sad a suicidal man that lives with the guilt of wrongfully committing his own wife to a mental institution just to get rid of her, Benny who was a bad military commander that slaughtered several of his troops because they did not met his expectations, Ellen who is a rape victim which was a promising engineer, but lost it all after the incident and haven't been strong enough to recover, even developing a phobia to the anything that is yellow colored (because that is the color of the clothes that the rapist was wearing), Nimdok who is an ex Nazi physician involved in horrible and cruel experiments and Ted who was a con artist that used his "skills" to take advantage of several women. In which order or how you solve each of the scenarios is up to you, with their lives on the balance.

Wrapping it up

Here you go folks, 5 games with stories that go right into the "what the hell" category that can be quite fascinating if you like that kind of thing. Many of these involve several metaphorical and even philosophical meanings as well as the psychological aspects of human thoughts/behavior. Some are more controversial than others, but they are always worth a look if you want to play something a little out of the ordinary.